Na`Vi's best heroes in 6.85

With the second qualifier stage of the StarLadder i-League Season 13 under way, Natus Vincere have some big games coming up that will give us the chance to make it to the playoff stage and ultimately the LAN in Minsk.

After our huge comeback from Mega Creeps against Hell Raisers and victory over OG, the Na`Vi DotA 2 team are looking disciplined and prepared for anything. As we prepare for these next games it will be important to evaluate the strengths of the team and how to best capitalise on the team’s most successful heroes.

There are a number of heroes that Na`Vi have run in 6.85 that have significantly higher win rates when we run them than they have across the patch in general. This fact suggests that our players have the skill and experience to play more effectively than our opponents on these heroes. Let’s look at a few of our most played in this patch.

The first hero is an absolute classic when it comes to the Na`Vi mid lane: none other than the Danil "Dendi" Ishutin Queen of Pain.Dendi has defined this hero and what it can do in competitive play from the beginning of DotA 2. Back when the mid lane was dedicated to the ‘play-making mid’ and not the second carry it has more commonly been used for, Dendi set the pace with QoP.

Apart from also seeing some safe lane play recently, not much has changed over the years. The team has achieved a much higher win rate on its beloved Queen of Pain than the 6.85 average. Over 7 games in the current patch, Na`Vi has a 57% win rate with the hero as opposed to just 47% in the patch in general! It is definitely a hero that the team thrives on, as it has all the characteristics of a Na`Vi masterclass in DotA.

Queen of Pain is a lane dominator who can snowball very easily and quickly with a few kills. Although it is traditionally Dendi’s hero, it has also worked in the hands of Dmitry "Ditya Ra" Minenkov in the safe lane. They have both picked up Orchid Malevolence early on and controlled the map and the game from then on.

The next hero that stands out is another versatile laner. Lina has been played by both Dendi and Akhbar "SoNNeikO" Buatev in the mid lane and support role respectively. Although she was highly prioritised as a core hero mainly in 6.84, she has maintained her 100% pick or ban rate into the new patch.

However, as her popularity has remained constantly high, her win rate in has been less than perfect. In 6.85 she has a patch win rate of only 49%. This percentage is outclassed by Na`Vi’s success with the hero, as we have maintained a 60% win rate with the fiery redhead over the course of this patch so far (before their loss against Alliance earlier today).

Similarly to Queen of Pain, Lina is versatile in a draft and the lanes, which makes her a very good pick in general. She also has the ability to snowball very hard in the core position, but also allows for some high skill and damage output plays, which are both deadly in the hands of SoNNeikO.

The next hero is another support that again is popular, but has been successful only in the right hands. Dazzle also has a 100% pick or ban rate in 6.85, but a similarly poor win rate overall, only just breaking even with a 53% win rate. Na`Vi, however, have won with the hero 66% of the time across 6 games in 6.85.

It has been noted before that Dazzle is a strong hero at the moment, but only in the right hands. That could equally be said for all the heroes in this article and Na`Vi are certainly the right pair of hands to handle them. Dazzle is perfect for covering the Na`Vi cores when they want to make aggressive plays, which secures their snowball even more.

The final hero worth mentioning isanother Dendi classic: Magnus. This hero was arguably one of the reasons that Na`Vi made it to TI5 with a huge comeback play from the high ground against Vega Squadron. As a team we only have 4 matches on Magnus this patch, but after the recent i-League games the team have put together a 75% win rate with the hero, as opposed to the patch average of 51%.

Magnus is certainly a situational hero, usually used in conjunction with melee cores for the Empower buff. However, he is a great play making hero and has the potential to do very well in lane or at least trade evenly. With a player like Dendi on this hero, there are many options for pace-setting plays throughout the game. Although there have only been 4 games in this patch on the hero, it is still a very powerful hero that is available to Na`Vi.

Na`Vi should thrive on this patch, as it is dominated by strong laning presence and early fighting. We even have better win rates than the patch average on the heroes that can execute this strategy the best. Hopefully, we will be able to prioritise these heroes going into the group stage of the SLTV qualifiers and show the rest of Europe and the world what we’ve got!

Natus Vincere (lat. – Born to win) is a multi-gaming eSports Club, which occupies a leading position on the world stage. During five years of its existence the team’s lineups have won and defended the world titles in different disciplines for many times, as well as set several still existing world records. Natus Vincere players visited more than one hundred tournaments and, in rare cases not getting on the winner’s podium, won 47 of them, becoming a real role model for eSports fans.